This initiative seems to be a genuine effort by Google to decrease the spam in their Places index–the engineers’ hearts are absolutely in the right place here. I am all for as much human interaction with business owners as Google thinks is possible.

But it’s frustrating to see such a good idea executed in this manner. As I’ve said before, I think the lack of a Places team member who can speak to what it’s like actually running a business is a weakness for Google. At the very least, Eric Schmidt et al should follow Yelp’s lead and start a Small Business Advisory Council of some kind to get input from real business owners on these kinds of initiatives.

I first became aware of the possibility that Google had quietly started down this path approximately eight weeks ago when a former client e-mailed me to ask if I had tried to verify any of her information with “Google Local” recently. I said that I hadn’t, and when I asked why she was asking, she responded that “someone who said they were from Google just called to ask about our information.” I replied that it was probably one of these SMB phishing schemes where the salesman pretends to be Google in an effort to get a business owner to sign up with him (and give away her Places account info at a later stage). She said that she received these kinds of calls all the time, that her impression was the same as mine, but that she was calling me to make sure.

Then, about four weeks later, a separate employee of the same client, who works at a different location, called me and reported the exact same thing. I told that employee that the next time someone called who “fit that description,” take down his information and say that I would personally call him back. When Google attempted to verify again, he did as I instructed, but was told by the man on the other end of the line that he was not allowed to give his own contact details…even though he was calling for my client’s. It all sounded extremely fishy to me–and to both of these clients/employees–until Mike’s announcement today.

Even if business owners aren’t confused or put off by an unannounced verification phone call, this form of anonymous outreach just gives copycat phishers and spammers one more mechanism to prey on SMB’s. For Google to expect the business owner to take a leap of faith and refuse to verify themselves in some way is not only arrogant but vaguely Orwellian. With all the focus on identity theft and information privacy that the latest Facebook leak is helping to fuel, it all goes back to Matt McGee’s emphasis on Trust. If I’m not the one initiating the phone call, how do I know who’s on the other end of the line? Yes, Google has a better-known brand name than infoUSA–the most noteworthy phone-verifier in the space–but as a result it also has more impersonators.

At any rate, business owners and SEOs who read this blog should know that they might actually be getting a call from Google now, though if anything I’d tighten, rather than loosen, my snake-oil filter from here on out.

Update — 8/3/10 @ 2:00pm PST:

In a comment on Mike’s blog, Miriam Ellis posted a terrific improvement on this verification which seems to me would alleviate much of the potential for mistrust and confusion on the part of the business owner:

As this is happening with verified listings, Google has the email addresses of the business owners they want to call. They could start the process by sending an email, perhaps 24 hours in advance, saying that a Google representative will be calling the business within the given time frame. Then, when the call came in, the business owner would be expecting it, and at least the two forms of communication would cross-reference and validate one another.

Granted, my suggestion might allow some spammers to somehow scramble to answer the call, in the case of spam businesses, but perhaps not. I’m not sure if Google’s reps are depending upon the element of surprise to see if the caught-off-guard recipient answers the telephone, “Bob’s Doughnut Shop,” or not. Actually, I really am wondering how the reps ARE determining legitimacy.

At any rate, it feels to me that something should be done to make this process feel more valid and less phishy.

Again, thanks for reporting.

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As of now (fingers crossed), both client listings I mentioned above are still live and have not experienced any drop in rankings; it’s possible Google just ignored them. It’s possible, though, that they’re no longer at ‘maximum trust level’ within the Places algorithm. It’s hard to know without a public statement beyond what was given on Mike’s blog this morning.

I started receiving these phone calls 2.5 weeks ago (today is 8/24/10) and previous to that have received 10-20 Google impersonating calls so the first “Google” call I received I was fairly “rude” to the individual and grilled him for information and verification that they were actually calling from Google. He/she assured me that they were but gave no way of verifying, but since he was only asking for verification of my GLL (google local listings) I obliged. We have several DBA’s operating out of a single address and he ran down 3 of them. I confirmed that they all operate out of this office and he said thanks and hung up. Since then our listings have retained their 1-4 positions, and one of our listings went from a 1 position of 7 box to a 1 box. Not really sure if the call had any effect on the 1 box creation though. Doing SEO for GLL’s has slowly started to drive me crazy since it is completely unverifiable. At least with SEO organic you can check you links and compare them to rankings. I have created at least a 100 “citations” for one of our GLL’s and none of those are showing on the GLL. But if you search for the phone number in quotes, you can see all of the citations I created. Crazy!!!

Since some business owners are still computer adverse, how will they react when they receive a call from Google? We have done web design and SEO for companies that had to be dragged into the digital age kicking and screaming. What will happen to a small business website when someone from Google repeatedly calls and the owner keeps hanging up on the call center employee? Hopefully, the red pen doesn’t emerge!

Q Grant

I had one of those guys call me. At first it was automated,saying it was google, asking me if I would like to update our information. Well the recording asked for the owner, but i clicked yes anyway as I am usually the one that handles these sorts of requests. i was transferred and a man asked if I was the owner. I stated, “No, but I am the assistant and I handle…” Once I said no the guy hing up. RUDE !

I spoke to one of these jerks this morning and he hung up on me when I asked for a supervisor. FTC does not allow such behavior. I get dozens of phishers every month and I don’t think my request for more info was in any way out of line. Rolling GooglePlaces into Google+ is moronic and pathetic, too. Google+ is one of the few big fails of Google.

I am in business to do business not to have to spend time on the phone to verify stuff I have already verified once (Hello Google, remember the postcard you sent me to initiate verification for Google places? A much better solution.) Nor do I want to waste a lot of time learning and relearning social media strategies for business promotion.